Baby heart valve transplant recipients appear on ‘Today’Â
Three months after an”¯unprecedented domino heart valve transplant at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children”™s Hospital in Manhattan that helped save their lives, Mia Skaats, now 11 months old, and Brooklyn Civil, 5 months old, visited the”¯“Today””¯show as their parents recounted the moments leading up to the pioneering procedure.”¯”¯
A domino transplant involves one patient receiving an organ transplant and, in turn, donating a healthy organ or healthy parts of an organ to another patient, becoming both a recipient and a live donor.”¯
In a conversation with”¯“Today””¯show co-hosts Sheinelle Jones and Craig Melvin, parents Nicole and James Skaats recalled the day they received news that Mia, who had a form of”¯cardiomyopathy”¯that causes a thickening and weakening of the heart muscle, was going to get a new heart. It would prove a life-changing moment as well for Samantha and Andre Civil”™s infant daughter, Brooklyn, born with truncus arteriosus, a rare condition in which the heart never develops a pulmonary valve and aortic valve, the two valves needed to pump blood out from the heart. Instead, she was born with a single outflow valve, known as a truncal valve, and a hole between the two pumping chambers of her heart.”¯
That would change as Mia”™s parents donated her heart valves to Brooklyn.
“There was no hesitation at all,” Nicole Skaats said. “We had waited so long for that gift, so to be able to give to somebody else, it made the moment that much more special.”
“I think about what the Skaatses did for us: They got such incredible news and they were able to think of somebody else in that moment,” Samantha Civil said.”¯”¯
The two babies — who are both recovering well, their families said — sported ruffled outfits and bows as Mia babbled throughout the televised segment.”¯”¯
“Using the valves from Mia to give to Brooklyn really changes the treatment for children with severe valve disease,””¯Marc Richmond, M.D., who led the girls”™ pre and postoperative medical care teams, told”¯“Today.””¯”¯“Normally, that life is multiple, open-heart surgeries as they get older, because the valves don”™t grow with them.
“But now, with freshly transplanted valves, they should grow with Brooklyn and in the future, really saves her from multiple surgeries,” added Richmond, who is also a pediatric cardiologist and director of the Program for Pediatric Cardiomyopathy, Heart Failure and Transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children”™s Hospital.”¯”¯
Along with growing heart valves is a growing bond.
“One of the nurses said that Brooklyn will always have a piece of Mia”™s heart,” Nicole Skaats told”¯“Today.””¯“It makes it feel like we waited so long for a reason.””¯”¯
Watch the full”¯“Today” segment”¯here.”¯”¯